Treating ich, but fish are getting stressed

This is a discussion on Treating ich, but fish are getting stressed within the Tropical Fish Diseases forums, part of the Freshwater Fish and Aquariums category; -->
Hi!
I wish this were not my first post, but I'm a lurker, so that's what I get...
Anyway. I have a 10 gal ...

Hi!
I wish this were not my first post, but I'm a lurker, so that's what I get...
Anyway. I have a 10 gal aquarium, semi planted (amazon sword, crystal wort, hornwort, and one tiny clump of java moss) with 2 guppies and 4 glass catfish.

The tank was cycled using the filter and some plants from my year old aquarium, and (after a quarantine) the glass catfish and guppies were added. Water parameters were and still are:
Nitrate: approx 5
Nitrite: 0
Hardness: 75
Chlorine: 0
KH:120
pH: 6.9

The glass catfish have a cave with plants around, and have been eating well even through treatment, and the guppies were doing fine. Not bothering them at all, and eating well.

Unfortunately, I picked up the wrong plant from the wrong tank at a petstore (can't remember the plant's name...sorry) and got snails, and a disintegrating plant. And a few days later, the ich showed up on my guppies.

I'm treating with Kordon Rid Ich. Full dose, but done gradually (read it on a forum while trying to figure out how not to kill the catfish, but make sure they're ich free).

I finished the first full dose, and all are eating and well, but the cats are getting a little milky looking. Still swimming and eating, but I'm afraid I'm stressing them too much.

No one has signs of ich, and they have been under treatment for about 56 hours.

So finally my question! Should I stop dosing? or should I continue until the 3 days the bottle recommends? I'm worried for my catfish...

Yes, raising the temp does speed up the life cycle, though assuming your tank was already ~80, 82 isn't much different. I exclusively use heat to treat ich - it's all that's needed. Every new fish gets a heat treatment while in quarantine. I raise the temp to 88 for two weeks, and that's that. Doesn't get any easier. I have kept a lot of fish, and I have never had one that could not handle the treatment. Even "cold" wanted fish. It's generally recommended for the temp to be 85-86, but I go higher to ensure the parasite is killed. Different strains can tolerate different temps, but 86 is the most popular recommendation.

That's a tough call. I've never raised the heat higher than 82 because of my cories. I didn't want to take the chance of killing them.

I had one outbreak in my 75 gallon a few months back from not leaving a fish in quarantine long enough. I put in an airstone, raised the temp to 82, and used the Kordon's.

I didn't add any salt to the tank because it's fairly heavily planted. I kept it up for approx 10 days - maybe a little more and I'm happy to say that I didn't lose any fish. The only thing that died off was my cabomba.

It does depend on species. All but one of my healthy rosy barbs died due to heat last summer. They were okay at 82 but started dropping quickly at 86.

Each to their own tho. I've always used a copper medication and never heat to treat ich, as I have certainly seen heat stress in fish.

And all of my rosy barbs have made it through the heat of the summer year after year, as well as the mandatory 88 degree heat treatment in quarantine after purchase. Is the super warm water acceptable for a long term temperature? Of course not. It's a 2 week treatment. I've administered the treatment on more than 50 species of fish without losing a single fish. But some people rather use medications to cure what can be cured naturally. You think its more stressful (though youve never tried it) than medicating, while the opposite arguement can easily be made. i used to medicate when i was a new to the hobby. Yes, to each their own.